Brandished

Brandished the races.
Holstered the genders.
Locked down the spaces.
Loosed the pretenders.

Presented pretending

Sight for the blind,
Blending not bending,
Deep in the mind,
Presented pretending.

To still the time they are inclined,

To traumatize with shock and awe,

To insert scripts that leave us flipped,

To stop our clocks and lock our jaw.

Their agitation’s aim,
To keep the natives pissed,
While chiefs are changing lanes,
Their greater aims are missed.

Straining for life where it’s not,
Defaming of life where it’s known.
Its author we’ve crossed and forgot,
Adrift in our own twilight zone.

Armor piercing planes
Jet fuel softened steel
Fear it froze our brains
One fraudulent ordeal

It’s news and it’s not.
It’s hard to refuse.
It’s cold and it’s hot.
It’s postmodern news.

She told me that she needs a man
With six months left to live,
Someone to carry out a plan,
Secret, corroborative.

Many years ago I’d said,
Such things are commonplace.
She giggled and her face turned red.
A freeze became her face.

Such a thing that I’d suggest,
No such thing conspiracy.
Conspiracy she can’t digest
Though she suggests it openly.

Fiction now is faction,
Agitation’s mission,
Tantrums and reactions,
Solvents for division.